Abstract

Simultaneous Natures: A Gardening Triptych in Montreal uses an interdisciplinary combination of Performance Studies, Ethnography, Geography, and Research-Creation to examine practices and performances of gardening in Montreal, Canada. The research is composed of three fieldwork case studies and accompanying choreographies based in Montreal, a city of social, cultural, linguistic, and deindustrializing frictions (Tsing). The introduction describes the project, methodology, and establishes a selective history of recent site-specific dance/performance conventions in urban gardens. The first fieldwork study concentrates on the Japanese Garden designed by Ken Nakajima at Espace pour la vie and the interplay of the garden’s key elements: rocks, water, and plants, challenging the conventions of international Japanese Gardens through the agential histories of the elements. The second fieldwork study concentrates on the physical technicity of gardening through an ethnographic portrait of a professional gardener in Montreal West, comparing the technicity and respective practices of a gardener to a contemporary dancer and documenting gardening tasks to experientially map the details of place. The third fieldwork study considers a local Home Depot Parking Lot (2019-2024) as a place to speculate and admire the remnants of capitalist excess amidst a broad definition of a garden. A final section describes the process for the site-related choreographic companions of the fieldwork case studies. These corresponding artistic works analyze and disseminate the research to reveal the contributions of embodied knowledge, dedicated dance practice, and long-term observation to the environmental exchange between human and non-human worlds facilitated through the dynamic practice of gardening.